Phantom Thief Shedninja!
by Shadow Minamino
Summary: Researcher by Day, Artifact Thief by Night! Join our friend Blake Bardell as he outwits law enforcement, wild pokemon, and enemies alike as the mysterious renegade: Phantom Thief Shedninja!
1. Blake the Bug Researcher!

So uhh... Hi. The name's Shadow Minamino, and well. This has been something I've been planning for a while and finally got the chance to start writing. So welcome one and all, to the beginning of a glorious journey of Thievery and... Well. More Thievery! But some other stuff too. Anyway, this is the beginnings of my humble little story, and I hope you all enjoy. So without further adieu... Let's start Phantom Thief Shedninja!

Oh, And as a little disclaimer before I forget. Pokemon does not belong to me, it belongs to Nintendo and Gamefreak. Also, the characters of Logan Martin, Jett Mitchell, and Shane Clarke don't belong to me either. They belong to Lolli-S, who's the author of a delightful fanfic series titled " The Louhearst Expedition: Year One " and it's sequel Year Two. The title alone is enough to get it out of the search engine,and it's really quite a good read. I recommend it. They'll be making semi-frequent cameo appearances throughout the story along with some other Louhearst characters to be named later. So I'm only saying this once right here. Okay. NOW we can begin with...

Chapter 1: Blake the Bug Researcher

* * *

" _Beedrill is a pokemon native to the Kanto region and classified as the Poison Bee pokemon. Also know by it's scientific classification of Venenum Terebro, Beedrills are known to be extremely territorial, and if a colony is found,the best advice is to steer clear of it completely, since Beedrills tend to be violent and attack on sight if they find an intruder in their territory. The Beedrill's greatest strength is in their speed, poison, and numbers, since a large swarm of them can easily take down a Hippowdon with the amount of toxin they produce. Class, if any of you find yourselves aggravating a Beedrill swarm, my advice is to - "_

Unfortunately for Blake Bardell, a 27 year old Typeologist, he couldn't for the life of him remember what his professor advised him to do in case he found himself on the wrong end of a Beedrill swarm, not that there was ever a right end to be on when being chased by one. Which predictably enough, he was. So, with his skinny little legs moving as fast as they could away from the venomous swarm of killer Beedrill and their home of Viridian Forest and towards his compound on the outskirts of Viridian City, the lanky researcher could only wonder why in the heck he would decide to try and create a thesis on Beedrill mating patterns when he knew full well how how dangerous the giant insects could be. He didn't graduate from Castelia University with a degree in Typeology – Bug for nothing, after all.

" Gee Blake, great going there. You finally start to make a name for yourself in the world of research and then you go and make a bonehead move by trying to study a swarm of Beedrill's who are not only extremely territorial to begin with, but also in mating season. What in the heck possessed me to do that in the first place? Even the most experienced researchers don't go tackling that without sufficient protection. This isn't like ninth grade where you tried to impress Jessica Carter by wrestling with the gym teacher's Machoke, dumbass. " The lanky adult muttered to himself as he kept sprinting away from the forest while he absentmindedly pushed his glasses up further onto the bridge of his nose to keep them from falling off mid-run while his open labcoat fluttered in the breeze.

Just as the Beedrill swarm behind him started to catch up - angry buzzing noises increasing in volume, Blake noted - , he saw it. The red shingled roof of his compound on the Viridian outskirts and right outside of it, the familiar shape of a giant red-winged mothlike pokemon hovering over the roof, apparently keeping lookout. The pokemon who had been with him since it was an egg and his ticket out of this dreadful situation. So, calling out at the top of his lungs, Blake shouted. " Solaris! Quiver Dance followed by Heat Wave! And hurry! "

A little ways away, the pokemon perked up at the voice of his master, evidently hearing his command. Solaris the Volcarona swooped down from the roof and towards Blake, performing an intricate midair dance and powering up while he moved, growing faster, stronger, and more durable with each boost with the cosmetic result being a small area net of silver and red sparkles surrounding the pokemon. Eventually, Blake and the pokemon passed each other and with a slight nod of the head from Blake that Solaris caught with his eye, he let loose.

Stopping in midflight, Solaris flapped his large mothlike wings, expelling an extremely large and powerful burst of superheated air from them, tinting the air red and creating a slight mirage like effect, the move having been powered up to the extreme by Quiver Dance. The large wave of hot air stopped many, if not all of the Beedrill in their tracks, dropping them as if they were cement filled balloons. Satisfied with his work, Solaris lazily floated back to Blake, who was leaning up against the wall of his stone compound. Blake reached out and rubbed the pokemon on his head. After all, Solaris had been saving his arse ever since he was a kid. The two were partners, and he wouldn't expect anything less from his first and strongest pokemon. He definitely thought the pokemon deserved some praise. " Nice work there buddy. Thanks for saving my arse... again. " Blake said as he opened up the door to his home, heading inside.

Living between Viridian Forest and Viridian City had it's perks. There was quite a bit of unused land around, allowing Blake a lot of building space. The compound functioned as his home, research facility, and a ranch in order to keep all his bug pokemon happy and active. And as a researcher, he had a lot of them. Practically every common one in existence, or at least their evolved forms. If he ever needed the unevolved forms, he could just send them off to a breeding center for a little while. It wasn't exactly easy catching them all, but he managed and maintained a strong relationship with all of them. After all, what good was a researcher if the pokemon he was researching hated him? He tried his best to keep them all as happy as possible.

Looking around he saw his three Wormadam forms, Tina, Stacy, and Marina excitedly chattering on about something in the corner, although what it was, he couldn't tell. Nearby was Jeeves the Mothim, looking completely bored out of his skull having to listen to them, the poor guy. Being the only guy in the family must of hurt. Might as well get him away from the three chatterboxes.

" Jeeves, come here for a minute? Let's go get some fresh air. " Blake smiled at the moth and held out his arm, at which point the pokemon excitedly flew over and perched on. Walking through the kitchen and towards the rear entrance of the compound, Blake opened the door that lead out to the ranch – He'd just realized that he must of shut it before going out, no wonder Jeeves was stuck inside, since he closed all the windows too. He'd apologize later. - and headed outside to the large pen that housed a small pond, some trees, and vast open field that he'd claimed as his ranch. Not that he'd gone through the proper channels to claim this land as his but... it was too late now to take it away. It was the city's fault for not checking up on him... and maybe a little of his for forgetting to ask. Not like it mattered now anyway.

As soon as he stepped foot onto the ranch, Jeeves took off to flutter about in the open air, causing Blake to break out into a small smile. Heading back into his home, Blake passed through the kitchen and made his way to the living room, crashing onto the couch and barely registering that the TV was playing a special report on Phantom Thief Shedninja, the master thief who no one's been able to capture or even get a lead on. Not caring about the news report, Blake switched the TV off and just closed his dark brown eyes, running a hand through his scruffy brown hair reflecting on well... a lot of stuff, really. Mostly his career. It had been five years since he graduated from Castelia University in his home region of Unova. With a degree in Typeology-Bug in hand, Blake thought he could take anything the research world had to offer.

He couldn't of been more wrong. He had absolutely no idea at how hard it was to get recognized in the research community. Late nights working on topics and research reports, only to be rejected by more senior researchers or finding out that someone else had already published something on it. He had no idea that the world of research could be so harsh. But just two years ago, Blake made a breakthrough. It was surprising that no one had thought of it before, but apparently it had been a mystery that no one had been able to crack. Wurmple evolution patterns.

After intense research and studying, Blake presented his research to the community, and was met with uproarious approval and was accredited to being a great researcher. It was just one paper, and were it any other topic, he probably would have gotten 15 minutes of fame and swept under the rug. But no, he cracked the code and was instantly vaulted to being recognized – although it probably helped that not many others were willing to specialize in Bug types, and even less dedicated themselves to researching them. So there was a slim pool. - But who knew that Wurmple Evolution pattern was just decided via personality and nature, basically already coded into their genes? No one else, that's who! He wasn't gonna look a gift horse in the mouth. So eventually, Blake became a bit more recognized in the scientific community, even asked to write and publish articles for magazines. About a year ago, he moved to Viridian City and set up base there.

Unfortunately, Blake's thoughts were interrupted by his Poketech going off. Sighing, he looked at the device: He had set an alarm for around 4 PM, to remind him that he had a class to teach down at Viridian Gym. All he had to do was show up every once in a while to teach the poor schlubs who signed up for his class about bug types. It was an agreement he set up with the leader of the gym, a nice looking guy named Blue Oak. He'd been leader for years now, and he'd aged into his thirties quite nicely. Shame about his grandpa though. Oak Senior had peacefully died of natural causes a few years ago. Now Blue spends most of his time divided between the research lab in Pallet Town and his gym in Viridian. Word had it that he was going to give the gym leader spot to one of his gym trainers soon and become a full time researcher in honor of his grandfather. Good for him. But Blake didn't exactly have time to be thinking. He had to dash in order to teach these kids about bug types and get paid for it. It was one of the ways he made the money to keep his research funded.

* * *

Alarms screeched throughout the air of Saffron City as a heated chase between criminal and police was happening in the street, both the criminal and the police officer following him on motorbikes. It looked like the criminal was about to pull away from the officer until the officer let go of her bike and kicked off of the seat in order to gain height for her jump, soaring through the air - unfortunately giving some lucky teenage boy his first experience of looking under a woman's skirt. The female uniforms never were modest when it came to showing off the legs - and tackling the criminal right off of his motorbike, driving a knee into his back and causing both of the now unmanned motorbikes to crash into a nearby building and explode. The chief of police wasn't going to be too happy, but all in the name of duty. The police officer and criminal were now down on the street, the officer having pinned the criminal down to the ground with a knee to the back and his face held down to the pavement by a hand, the other one currently slapping a pair of handcuffs onto the criminal.

" I've caught the bank robber, chief. Bringing him to the station now. " said a cool, commanding, and feminine voice belonging to 25 year old Alexis Summers, police officer of Saffron City. Unfortunately, since her motorbike was destroyed, she'd have to walk the criminal to the station. And for the sake of him not putting up any resistance, she grabbed a pokeball from her belt and released the pokemon inside. An Ampharos.

" Pharos, I want you to use Thunder Wave on this man, okay? " Alexis politely said to the bipedal electric type, who complied and launched a paralyzing wave of electricity at the criminal's, locking up his muscles and allowing Alexis to just drag him along to the station, Pharos walking along side her. Adjusting her blue detective's cap, Alexis reached up under it and removed the pin keeping her hair in a bun, allowing her long brunette hair that came down to the middle of her back to be let loose as it flowed downwards. After a short walk to the station and placing the criminal in a holding cell where he'd await further trial, Alexis decided to pay a visit to the chief of police's room, having been asked to meet with the chief once she returned from duty. Making her way to the room, she opened the door and entered, standing in front of the chief of Police's desk.

The Chief of Police was a 35 year old man named Brian Stone, and he was a very imposing person. Standing at about six feet tall and built like a tank, the man was quite muscular and at first glance, was very unapproachable due to his powerful features and his stern looking face. However, anyone who got to know him found out that he was actually a kind man, who cared deeply about the people under his command and the people of Kanto, but had complete devotion to his job and despised criminals. With a full beard, stern green eyes, and shortly cut, dark blonde hair, you could tell this was a man you didn't want to be on the bad side of. However, when Miss Summers entered the room, the man stood up at an imposing height of six foot four and looked straight into her dark blue eyes with a smile before speaking in a deep and imposing voice.

" Miss Summers! I hear you've had quite the track record of catching criminal's lately! Bang up job, my dear, Bang up job! " The chief then paused to let loose a booming laugh before continuing. " I still don't see why you keep turning down that promotion to Lieutenant, you'd make a fine one! Anyway, I called you hear to put you on a case. You know that thief, the one everyone calls Phantom Thief Shedninja? Well, we've never been able to actually capture the guy. But due to your phenomenal track record... I'd like to put you on the case. From now on, you're in charge of trying to catch this Shedninja bloke, got it? " Chief Stone ended his speech by tossing a file containing all the data the police had collected on Shedninja and allowed Alexis a chance to chime in.

" Understood Chief. You can count on me to bring this Shedninja to justice. " Alexis said, catching the folder and causing Chief Stone to smile and nod before responding. " Excellent Miss Summers! I expect great things from a woman like you, great things! Now, I'm sure you're quite busy, so I'll let you go now. Have a great day! " Stone said, shooing the younger officer out of his office and closing the door behind her.

* * *

Blake arrived at the Viridian Gym later than he should have, having dashed inside and to the room that was set up for his teaching, noticing that all of the class seemed to be waiting for him. Putting on a grin, Blake laughed for a few moments before explaining. " Sorry everyone about my tardiness. I was doing some research on Beedrill's and managed to tick off a swarm of them... They chased me. " Blake said, laughing before a blonde haired boy with gray-blue eyes spoke up from his seat.

" Wait, are you saying you pissed off a Beedrill swarm? What kind of an idiot professor are you? " The boy said, smirking as the two sitting next to him – One reminded Blake vaugely of a large gorilla while the other seemed to be what people called a homosexual, or at least looked too man pretty to be straight – let out laughs. Blake only grinned as he sauntered his way up to the desk and placed his hand on it, locking brown eyes with blue. " , was it? I've been teaching this course for a few good months out of the goodness of my heart – he left out the fact that it was also for the moolah – and while you're a new batch of students ,I expect to be respected. Now, I can be your friend, or your enemy. Take your pick. " Blake said, smiling cheerfully as he made his way to the front of the class and projected his voice. " Now then, I know you all are a new batch of students and are probably only here because you're forced to be, but I'm going to try and make this fun for all of us. Anyway, I brought someone along today for you all to meet. " Blake said as he released Solaris from his Pokeball.

" This is Solaris, my Volcarona. He's both my first and strongest pokemon, and I consider him my best friend. Can anyone here tell me about his species?" Blake said, as a hand shot up in the air and Blake lazily pointed to it, the hand belonging to a girl with dark brown hair and a purple headband. " Yeah, go ahead Miss.. Mackenzie, I think. "

The girl identified as Mackenzie instantly started to speak once called upon. " Volcarona, or it's scientific name of _Ignis Tinea_ is a dual fire and bug type that's exceedingly rare even within it's home region of Unova. It's also noted to be one of the stronger pokemon in existence, with it's speed and power falling just short of legendary pokemon." She said, before turning to a boy with black curly hair who just so happened to fake cough " Nerd! " when she finished. Blake only grinned before speaking again.

" Correct Miss Mackenzie, I can see that at least someone here appreciates academics." Blake said before turning to the boy who coughed. " And Mister... Mitchell, was it? Some of us make a living off of being nerds, as you so civilly called us, myself included. Maybe if you studied a little more like Miss Mackenzie did here instead of lusting after the ladies with your eyes, you'd be able to actually get more of them. After all, some ladies happen to be attracted to smarts and not just looks. " Blake said as he looked as his watch and sighed.

" Look at the time... I'm sorry for cutting today short everyone, but there's this museum in Pewter that's got a new exhibit on Arceus Plates and I simply must be there. You can go." Blake said as he rushed out of the room, not even looking or caring whether the teens in there left, stayed, made out on the tables, whatever. He just had to get home. Dashing away from the gym, Blake made it back and locked the door behind him, Solaris following him inside as he went to his room and pulled something out from under the bed.

" Solaris. Get Sniper and whoever else wants to come along. We've got work to do." Blake said, uncharacteristically serious as he pulled out an outfit that vaguely resembled a Shedninja.

" Let the heist commence. "

* * *

And... uh. That's it. Not really much else to say... Review, I guess. Hope you enjoyed it. Updates will come whenever they can. I'm a university student, so I can't promise them super frequently, but I'll try my best.


	2. A Hiest to Remember!

Back again pretty quick, I am. Last time, we met Blake Bardell, bug type researcher and Alexis Summers, Saffron police officer. We'll be seeing more of them today, but this time, Blake'll look a little different than you all remember from last chapter.

Note: Also, the hair dying thing may be a bit unrealistic here ( or completely unrealistic ). But this is both the pokemon world and a story, so I'm taking artistic license. Also, I've never used hair dye in my life, so yeah. Artistic License, go!

Oh, and one last thing. In case you didn't get it from last chapter, whenever a sentence or something is encased in these: - - , it means that it's part of a person's inner thoughts, but it's not important enough or would ruin the story flow if I put them in italics like normal thought processes are. So yeah. Enjoy...

Chapter 2: A Heist to Remember

* * *

Pulling out the Shedinja-looking costume from under his bed, Blake turned to Solaris and nodded to the pokemon, giving the signal that Solaris was to go gather Sniper and some of the other bug types while Blake retreated to the bathroom to get ready.

As Blake entered the bathroom, he closed the door behind him and closed the window curtain as he stood in front of the sink and withdrew a pair of green colored contacts from a drawer under the sink as he removed his glasses and put them into the drawer while slotting the contacts into his eyes. Afterward, he removed an industrial size bottle of black hair dye from the cabinet, and rubbed a generous amount into his hair as it eventually turned to a jet black color, the only brown one could see was if they looked extremely close at the roots of the hair.

Looking into the mirror, one would not see Blake Bardell, but a black haired, green eyed man... who just happened to look a lot like Blake Bardell if you looked too closely and recognized facial features. But at least the disguise wasn't totally paper-thin.

With the disguise preparation complete, Blake exited the bathroom and returned to his bedroom, where Solaris was waiting with Sniper the Scyther along with four other pokemon: Joule the Galvantula, Spy the Ninjask, Crusher the Pinsir, and Ezio the Krickitune. Blake grinned: They would be an excellent team for tonight. Blake grinned as he looked at the six and spoke.

"Alright everyone, we've got a job to do tonight. See, the museum in Pewter is having a special exhibit on the Arceus plates for a few weeks, and lucky for us, while most of them are copies for the sake of education, they've been proudly toting that they've got the authentic Zap Plate on hand. Now, you all know how those things are shrouded in legend and connected to the legendary pokemon Arceus. Then again, anyone with half a brain could figure that out." Blake paused to let out a quick chuckle before continuing. His humor was lame, but it wasn't hard to make the guy laugh.

"Alright, so we go in, get the plate, get out, and sell it for a pretty little penny. Should help us with our cash flow if we sell it to the right guy. Anyway, you all remember what I told you about aliases, right? You know, the fact that since even a mentally deficient Primeape could connect the dots if someone just so happened to figure out that the pokemon belonging to me and Shedninja were named the exact same names? Pretty sure I trained you all to answer to either in my voice." Blake said with a slightly cocky grin on his face.

It hadn't been easy at first, but he was able to manage. He'd of been able to get every one of his pokemon to answer to him if he called them either one of their names, just so it would be that much harder to connect him with Phantom Thief Shedninja. After all, he wanted to make sure he closed every loophole he could, so his fun with larceny didn't have to end so quickly.

Looking at his team of six, Blake called out to his pokemon, making sure they would be ready for the job. "Alright. Solon, Edge, Volt, Shinobi, Crunch, Altair. Get ready to roll." Blake said confidently as he listened to his pokemon buzz and cry out in excitement before Blake returned them all to their pokeballs.

Facing the mirror that was fastened to the wall in his bedroom, Blake went through the motions of putting on his costume, the act so second nature to him at this point that he just let his mind wander, lost in his own thoughts.

He'd been doing the whole thieving thing for about two years or so now, maybe a little less. It was just when he was starting out in the research world. He'd thought he'd have enough money to be able to fund something as great as this compound and be able to keep his pokemon in good shape. Nothing was too good for his friends after all. Unfortunately, it wasn't long until he had found out that researching was less profitable than it seemed, and you'd really have to make it big in the world of research like Rowan or Elm did in order to afford anything super large.

So, with his main goal of paying the bills and keeping his pokemon healthy and fed, Blake set out to try and try to earn some extra cash. At first he tried a lot of stuff: Shopkeeping - He was fired from that after Sniper decided to clean out the entire store of it's supply of sugar and sugary sweets - , Lawncare – Got fired from that one after Solaris decided that "Clean up the remains" meant "Torch the place" -, and even an entertainer at a local bar – Apparently, he got fired from that one for being a crappy singer. Bunch o' jerks. -, but nothing seemed to work for him.

Well, with the bills coming up soon, Blake could only think of one thing to do. After all, he never had the most crystal clear morals around, so why not take up the mantle of a criminal? Besides, he wasn't doing it to inherently be evil, he just wanted to get by... and after a while, he did kinda love the thrill and fun that he had while posing as Phantom Thief Shedninja.

After about a year of evading the police and stealing tons of artifacts - Fossils, Old pottery, whatever fetched a pretty penny really -, Phantom Thief Shedninja became world renowned as a master thief, or at least a really damn good one. Hell, he even liked the name the police gave him: His costume looked like a Shedinja, Shedinja was a phantom, and well... they kinda accidentally made a typo when they printed the first article on him and the name Shedninja stuck. Not that he was complaining, ninja's were pretty cool in his opinion. I mean, one of Johto's Elite Four was one.

Shaking his head to get his mind clear of thoughts, Blake looked in the mirror at himself, his costume fully on. Clad in a grey segmented bodysuit, it looked simple enough, but the real kicker was these cool gadgets he had on the suit.

He wasn't much of an inventor, but he knew a guy in Sinnoh that made these for him. Some old codger that used to be a part of a criminal organization, his name was Marron or Chairon or something -on, he couldn't be bothered to remember. Point was, he met the guy while he was in Sinnoh on business.

Feeble old guy, almost dead at this point. They had a little share and care session where they talked about each others lives... well okay. The old dude rambled and and Blake just listened, old men tend to like to ramble a lot, and who was Blake to deny him that simple pleasure of having someone to talk to? Apparently he was an inventor for Team something or other, there were too many teams around these days. Course, this was when the idea of thievery was just planted into Blake's head, and he asked the old man for a few special devices.

The guy obliged, just happy to be of use and the fact that Blake had listened to his stories, and created a few special gadgets, no questions asked. Poor guy must of just needed some friends: After his team disbanded and he got carted off to jail, he re-evaluated himself in there and SEEMED to turn over a new leaf. At least from what he told Blake. Maybe he should try to remember his name...

Back to the gadgets and away from the boring inner mind explanation however, they really were quite nice. There weren't too many things, but he had enough to get by. Attached to his torso were two detachable motion sensors, shaped in the fashion of a Shedinja's eyes. When tripped by someone walking past them, they would send a signal to Blake via his special visor, which prompted him to hide out until they left or hide out until he could stealthily beat the stuffing out of them. Handy little things, they were. Speaking of his visor, it was currently fastened over his eyes, in the shape of the little halo crescent that floated above a Shedinja's head. Pretty basic stuff: One way sight, hid the eyes... oh, and it had nifty little settings like thermal detection and night vision.

Last but not least, there was one of his favorite tools: A jetpack that, surprise surprise, looked like a Shedinja's wings. Great for quick escapes, and honestly? It just looked cool. The best part of them though? They even had a manual mode where the wings would flap and he'd be able to move through the air without the use of fuel. It was a bit slower than jetpack mode, but it was way better than having his pack crap out on him at a crucial moment.

Checking over his appearance and making sure he had everything, Blake head out the rear door of his compound and activated the manual mode of his jetpack as the wings started to hum and flap, propelling Blake into the air as he flew off towards the Pewter Museum in search of his prize: The legendary Zap Plate.

* * *

Finally, she was technically off duty for the night. It had been a long day for Alexis, filled with criminals and paperwork, but now she could finally head home to her little cottage on the outskirts of Celadon City and rest up.

Getting off the bus that took her home, Alexis got the house keys out of her pocket and opened the door to her small one-woman cottage. It was a pretty basic setup, she didn't need anything too fancy. Two bedrooms, living room, bathroom, and kitchen. It was all she really needed, and since she was situated on the outskirts of Celadon - She preferred the peace and quiet rather than the hustle and bustle of the city, but she was still close by so she could go shopping and such.-, there was plenty of open space for her pokemon to roam and play.

Sitting down on the couch, the young officer exhaled as she sunk in and thought back to earlier that day, when the chief assigned her to the Phantom Thief Shedninja case. Apparently this guy was stealing things from under the police's noses without ever being caught for the past two years. She'd heard about him in passing from other officers, and she couldn't believe some of the tall tales she heard. This one time, she had heard an officer exclaim that this thief had the power to turn invisible and fly around like a ghost. She thought that the tales were absolutely absurd, and that when she and Shedninja met face to face, he would go down, and go down hard.

Alexis's thoughts were then interrupted as she heard her poketech go off. Digging it out of her pocket, she looked at the caller ID. _"Strange, what does the chief want at this hour? Could it be..." _Alexis then flicked open her phone and answered. "Chief. What's the matter?" Alexis said in a serious tone as the Chief broke out into a booming yell on the other end.

" No time for formalities tonight Miss Summers! The station has just received an anonymous tip that Shedninja will be at the Pewter City Museum tonight, and that he's after the Arceus Plates they have! Get over there and be ready to apprehend him! We expect great things tonight, so don't let us down! " Then the chief hurriedly hung up without even a goodbye. He must have been busy, to leave off without his usual cheery goodbyes. Nevertheless, Alexis quickly jammed her phone back into her pocket and got up. Luckily, she didn't even have time to change out of her uniform, so she simply just grabbed her pokeballs and dashed out the door.

"Sora, let's go!" She exclaimed, releasing a pokemon into the open air. It was a large winged bird with dark grey plumage and a red and white comb of feathers on top of it's head. Climbing onto the Staraptor, Alexis spoke. "Alright Sora, we need to get to Pewter City, and step on it!" The large pokemon complied as he set off into the air with a cry, speeding towards Pewter City.

" _Shedninja, consider this your last heist."_

* * *

Smirking, Blake shoved his phone back into his pocket as he stood on top of the Pewter City Museum. He'd just given the police an anonymous tip that Shedninja would be showing up tonight at the museum and was after the Arceus Plate. Why did he just tip off the police? Because it was more fun that way. Was it reckless? Yes. Was it stupid? Yes. Did he happen to care? No. He just liked making fools out of the local law enforcement. It made him laugh.

Peering down from his perch on the roof, Blake spotted two guards at the entrance of the museum down below and silently released his Kriketune. "Altair, use Sing and put those two to sleep, alright?" Blake said as he plugged his ears with his fingers. Altair complied and started to sing a relaxing melody that drifted down towards the guards at the entrance. Watching them yawn and slump down to the ground, Blake returned Ezio to his ball and jumped down from the rooftop, removing a motion sensor from his costume and sticking it to the side of the entrance. That way, if anyone came in, he'd be alerted to it.

Heading into the museum, Blake spotted a few security cameras close by. He didn't want any police monkeys to get ahold of any footage of him, it would ruin his reputation as the Phantom Thief. So, calling out Volt the Galvantula from his pokeball, Blake pointed towards the cameras and spoke. " Volt, you mind? I need some electrical interference. " Volt only let out an excited cry as he fired an Electro Web from his mouth, the web large enough to hit the cameras in the vicinity and short circuit them, leaving a faintly glowing strand of spider silk crackling with electricity strung over the cameras. That was the cleanup crews problem, not Blake's. So, the thief continued on, activating his thermal sensor on the visor to see if there were any laser grids.

Suprise suprise, there were. Not taking a step forward in hesitance to activate the grid, Blake called out his Ninjask, Shinobi. Normally, he'd have the speedy bug maneuver through the laser grid and destroy each laser making node with a Mud-Slap or something, since a Ninjask's eyes were able to see the frequency of light the lasers emitted. But, since he was running low on time since he made that call a while ago, Blake decided to take the boring and easy way and destroy them all at once. "Shinobi. Just use a Bug Buzz at full power this time. No time for the usual theatrics." Blake said, plugging his ears again.

Shinobi seemed to be a little disappointed that he wouldn't get to do his thing, but nonetheless complied and released a high pitched sonic wave, the frequency of it was high enough to crack open the laser-making nodes and blow them up. Blake always wondered why the hell they made everything be able to explode, but eventually he just learned to stop questioning it and go with it, let another researcher figure that out.

Returning Shinobi, Blake quickly made his way to a steel door. Guess the museum really didn't want to let this go. Of course. Steel was no match for Solon and Crush. Releasing the both of them, Blake only pointed at the door and they knew what to do. Solon first fired a Heat Wave towards the steel door, melting it ever so slightly, and making it soft enough for Crush to ram his pincers into the door and open them, ripping the door open and creating a large hole for Blake to enter from. This really was a easy heist... it was like these guys didn't even try to defend this. Then again, he'd been doing this for two years now. Maybe basic stuff like this didn't affect him anymore.

Entering the hole, Blake saw it. The seventeen plates, sixteen fake, one real. Now, he could do this with finesse and have Edge cut open the glass or he could just save time and have Crush smash the glass. Which is exactly what he did. Removing the Zap plate and carefully making sure not to step on the shattered glass, Blake exited the hole and returned his pokemon... Only to narrowly dodge a bolt of lightning, hearing a slow clap from the side.

Looking over, Blake saw her. A lady a little younger and shorter than he was, dressed in the standard police uniform and wearing a dark blue detective's cap, with an Ampharos at her side. A look of surprise quickly transitioned into a gentle smile as Blake spoke up. " Oh, so you must be the new police monkey they put on my tail? How did you happen to get past my little sensor?" Blake asked curiously, his eyes lighting up in whimsical joy behind his visor.

The lady who's name Blake did not yet know spoke up in a cool and commanding voice, her tone cold and harsh. " I had Pharos fry it. By the way, I should return it to you now. Not that you'll be needing it." She said before tossing a fried motion sensor towards Blake, who caught it with ease, noticing the small wisps of smoke coming from it. The lady then continued. "Now, come with me peacefully, or I am going to make this hard for you, Phantom Thief Shedninja."

Blake broke out into a grin and let out a chuckle. "Oh come on now miss, no need to be so formal. Shedninja's fine. I gotta say, you're more competent than the rest of them. Maybe this won't be so boring after all. Now, what's your name missy?" Blake said grinning as the lady quickly retorted.

" My name is none of your concern. Just know that I'm going to be the one that finally brings you to justice, scum." She said harshly. No sooner had she said that however, Shedninja was behind her and tossing something rectangular and red up and down in his hand. Her wallet. How did he get past her so fast? … Wait, her wallet was fastened to her thigh when she was in uniform! That pervert!

Blake only kept the grin on his face as he opened up the wallet and took a look at her driver's license. "Alexis Summers, huh? You're quite a pretty lady. Blue eyes, Brunette... and woah, not a bad bust either! Really glad they started putting women's measurements on these things now. Nice ta meet you." Blake said chuckling as he tossed the wallet back to Alexis, who caught it, her face tinted with a hint of red.

" You... You... Pharos use Thunderbolt now!" She commanded, still somehow managing to keep her cool as her Ampharos fired off another bolt of lightning. Blake unfortunately got hit, even as he tried to dodge, but luckily for him, his Jetpack had a function that allowed it to absorb most of the electricity, he should be fine... until he heard his Jetpack make weird noises... did she short it out? She did, didn't she? That bitch! He liked his jetpack... it would take him forever to fix...

"Crap, this may be a closer call than I thought... Volt, Shinobi, Edge, Altair, Solaris! Let's get the hell out of here. Bug Buzz! " Blake said as he let out the aforementioned pokemon, plugged his ears, and hopped on Solaris's back as the five bugs let out a catastrophic chorus of sound waves, shattering nearby glass and forcing both Alexis and her Ampharos to cover their ears in pain and recoil to the ground. While they were down, Blake took the opportunity to fly off on Solaris's back through the nearby skylight, the glass having been shattered by Bug Buzz.

Recalling the other four pokemon once he was high enough, Blake gave a shout down towards the recovering brunette officer. " Alexis, right? Au Revoir, you were certainly more of a challenge than the rest of them, perhaps we'll meet again! Ta-ta! Oh, and by the way, nice legs! " Blake said, flying off on his Volcarona.

Having gotten up and returned Ampharos to his ball, Alexis cursed under her breath. "Damn it, how could I have let that perverted criminal get away? He's certainly tricker than I expected him to be... but I don't like to lose twice. Shedninja, prepare yourself to be brought to justice!" Alexis ended her small rant with a shout as she let out Sora and flew off towards her home in Celadon, not even bothering to go after the criminal who was now long gone.

* * *

Having just arrived back at home, Blake got out of costume and washed out his hair dye, before sitting down on his bed, obviously exhausted by the encounter, letting his pokemon rest in their balls. Never before had he had a close call like that. This Alexis girl was a pretty fierce opponent. In a way, he hated it, having his reputation as the Phantom Thief ruined by that girl. But in a way, he enjoyed the challenge it provided: No longer would the break ins be boring, now he actually had someone that could match him on the opposite side! Breaking out into laughter, Blake grinned as a singular though ran through his head before going to sleep.

" _Finally, this is getting more fun. Alexis, I believe you've made yourself a rival. Let the games begin."_

* * *

And that's chapter 2. I realize the " Blake's pokemon have two nicknames " might get a little confusing to you all at some point, so I'll put a list of all his pokemon and their names up on my profile soon enough. Be sure to leave a review! Feedback always helps. Anyway, till Chapter 3 everyone.


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